Living
in an era where a team in 38 matches scores a century of goals, a World Cup is
witnessed which has the joint highest number of goals and seeing the 5 time Champions of the World conceding 7 goals in a World Cup semifinal, this
question has to arise as which style guarantees success or in simple words
which style is more intriguing when it comes to the fans tiki taka or the
famous Counter Attack.

Tiki
taka has been invented by the Dutch legend Johan Cruyff when he came to manage
the Barcelona side in 1998 after having a successful stint as a footballer.
What can simple be described as passing the ball to and fro, tiki taka was
taken to the height of greatness by the Dutch. Having won 4 successive title
from 1990-1994, this was the pinnacle point of tiki taka and provided a
framework for upcoming managers to grab the opportunity.

The
evolution of tiki taka was carried out in Spain by a Dutch named John Cruyff. The
rest is a part of glittering history.

What
has been the most fascinating part in tiki taka is the absence of physical game
that has dominated the pre and post-colonial era for so long. It has been a
miracle of tiki taka that physically small players like Iniesta, Messi and Xavi
have been regarded on the International scale as Legends. While nobody can
undermine the ability of the above mentioned players, they needed a style of
play suiting them and the tiki taka has come with just that.

Arsene Wenger, Pep Guardiola and Brendan Rodgers are the latest beneficiaries of this
total football system.

Coming
back to the discussion now we move on towards the counter attacking football.
While in tiki taka there is no target man and no fixed position of any player
i.e. it is a fluid system, counter attacking football is more based on the
defects of tiki taka. While tiki taka is more based on growing the players up
and reaping the benefits, counter attacking football is based on assembling the
players on the basis of qualities they have shown. In counter attacking
football you have to be perfectly positioned to take a ball and made a strong
run down the box.

One
mere advantage the counter attacking football generates is the absence of
boring nature. At times when things aren’t going your way in tiki taka it deems
as a frustrating option on the other hand in the case of counter attack, even
if you are losing the game but the game is perched at a much higher level than
and keeping in mind Real Madrid as the pin-point of counter attacking mechanism
along with the likes of Manchester City and Borussia Dortmund, you can damage
the opponents both physically and mentally adopting this level.

In
tiki taka you have to control the game to score a goal. In Counter attack you
have to score the goal to control

While
it has always been a question that which style grants success, its answer isn’t
that simple. While Barcelona being the flag bearers of the passing game have a
great immediate past, Real Madrid and Manchester City are the most popular
exceptions from the rule. So it quite doesn’t matter which style you play, but
it does matter how you play it.

Tiki taka is young:

Looking
at the three teams that play tiki taka as a sole earner of butter and bread,
Swansea City, Bayern Munich and Liverpool all have young managers at the helm.
While it is slightly not more than a co-incidence, still it is a good sign that
the young-men in the managerial roles are favoring this style of play to come
forward. Southampton have been the recent side that adopted this technique and
even their manager is young and dynamic.

Goals are equally divided:

Last
season 4 teams managed to get past the century mark in terms of goals scored,
while Real Madrid and Barcelona are the constant factor in this race for years,
Liverpool made a surprise entry into the list. Unsurprisingly Premier League
Champions Manchester City also made the cut.

Out
of the five teams mentioned above, three of them favors a tiki taka style and the
other two were lethal in their attack. So when it comes to goals galore, both the
styles of play were evenly divided last season giving viewers a headache to
choose their favorite style of play.

Tiki Taka

Counter Attack

Team

Goals scored

Team

Goals scored

Liverpool

101

Manchester City

102

Bayern Munich

94

Real Madrid

104

Barcelona

100

PSG

84

Conclusion:While no style can guarantee success, both Tiki Taka and Counter attacking football are adding to the beauty of the football. While Counter attacking game describes amazing run down the flanks, tiki taka is often characterized by jaw dropping balls. So just like you cannot choose between Messi and Ronaldo if you are a neutral, same goes in case of this.